Chapel Downs Primary School, in Flat Bush, was closed after a pupil tested positive for Covid on Monday. Image / Google
Chapel Downs Primary School, in Flat Bush, was closed after a pupil tested positive for Covid on Monday. Image / Google
It is the phone call no parent wants to get during a pandemic - confirmation their child has tested positive for Covid-19.
But it was the reality for the family of a little girl who had just been dropped off at school less than 10 minutes before.
The Ministry of Health has released more details about the positive case confirmed by authorities on Monday - giving a timeline of events leading up to the result and what led to the youngster's school, Chapel Downs Primary, being closed for the rest of the week.
Laboratory testing for the girl, aged under 10, took place over the weekend and a notification of a positive lab result was produced at 7.30pm on Sunday. Sunday was also the day the pupil - a close contact of an earlier confirmed case linked to the Botany sub-cluster - was due to come out of a 14-day isolation, after the household went into quarantine on August 30.
Despite the positive result being found out on Sunday night, the positive test was reviewed the next day by the Auckland Regional Public Health Service, where it was matched to the child.
That process was completed and the national database updated at 8.17am on Monday - most likely as the pupil, who was asymptomatic, and three other close contacts were on their way to school.
Just over 20 minutes later, at 8.39am, the girl's family received a phone call from a medical officer confirming the test had come back positive.
"This is the date the Ministry [of Health] was formally notified and it is the same day we publicly reported the case," a spokeswoman said.
"This timeline means there was a period on Monday morning when the family would have been unaware of the child's positive result.
"That is when the child - who was asymptomatic - was briefly on the school grounds but was picked up following notification of the result."
Health authorities find out two days later child had been at school
The ministry spokeswoman said as soon as formal notification was received, steps were taken to alert the rest of the family and the appropriate contact tracing and interviews started to take place.
Two days later, on Wednesday morning, staff at the ARPHS received further information the affected child had been at school between 8.30am and 9am on Monday before the family knew she was a positive case.
Chapel Downs Primary School principal Vaughan van Rensburg said the school was told about the positive case being on school grounds for 30 minutes at 2pm that Wednesday.
"This information was shared as soon as events were confirmed on Wednesday and appropriate actions initiated," the spokeswoman said.
Yesterday, a call was made to every staff and pupil connected to the school to get a Covid-19 test as a precaution.
The school has been closed since the positive case was confirmed so health authorities can contact what they've described as a very small number of people deemed to have been close contacts of the pupil when she was briefly at school on Monday.
"The ministry wants to reinforce recent comment from ARPHS: ARPHS has liaised with the family closely to communicate the importance of staying in self-isolation. The family has been co-operating with Public Health and members have been tested and have stayed in isolation until this event."
